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Review a portfolio of PSG's designs here.
The typical approach to problems of public management is to do careful analysis in order to find "the right answer." That analysis rests on certain assumptions about how public services should be delivered. Analysis is important when working within a given paradigm. By its nature it is not inventive. When creative new approaches are sought, design is a more useful approach than analysis. Creative problem solving requires a thorough challenge to existing assumptions and an open process for designing new solutions. This is not "natural." To be successful requires an explicit format.
The Public Strategies Group uses a format called a "Design Lab" to help clients develop creative new approaches to the delivery of public services. Design labs are intensive, structured sessions ranging from 1/2 day to one week. Lab participants (usually from 6-12 creative thinkers) engage in a step-by-step process to "invent" new approaches or designs. PSG both facilitates the design lab and provides creative resources to staff the lab.
Design labs are "commissioned" with a specific statement of the problem, a definition of what constitutes success, and specified parameters within which the design process must take place. While the labs are not analytical, analysis can be useful in preparing for a lab. Therefore, labs usually begin with presentation and discussion of important data regarding the problem.
While each lab is different, most Design Labs entail the following:
- A thorough challenge of the existing assumptions of the current system;
- A presentation and discussion of the system's strengths and opportunities for improvement;
- A presentation of re-inventing ideas and theories from other locations;
- An open process for designing new service delivery alternatives; we work first with design principles or "features," then deepen the ideas using dyads or small groupings.
Results of a typical lab include a written report laying out a proposed solution(s) to the problem presented. Designs are typically akin to high-level architectural drawings, not detailed schematics. The designs are often unusual and challenging, yet we demand that they be practical and realistic.
For more information about Design Labs, e-mail Babak Armajani .
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